Page 8

8. Charlie :

(Who needs sleep anyway?)

I tapped my card against the reader, grabbed the sandwich and the bottle of water from the counter, shoved them in my bag and moved to the side to wait for my coffee.

Every muscle in my body ached this morning. I wasn’t sure if it was the lack of sleep I was running on currently or the way training had stepped up, or just the general fact that my mind didn’t want to stop whirring with thoughts I had no business having. Probably all three.

I did what I always did, and squeezed along my shoulder, hoping it might ease the tightness building, though it didn’t seem to help. I needed a massage. I needed something …

‘Charlie?’ called the barista, waving around my Americano far too haphazardly considering it was boiling water. ‘Char—’

I was also far too precious about my third coffee of the day to risk him spilling it. I snatched it away before he could finish calling me again, and turned around to find Gordon standing behind me.

‘Oh, Charlie, hello.’

‘Hey, mate. How’s it going? How long have you been standing there?’

He looked at his watch, ‘Twenty-three seconds.’

‘You waiting for a coffee?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I don’t drink caffeine. I’ve ordered a hot chocolate.’

Mmm, hot chocolate. Even the thought of thick hot chocolate warmed my insides, unfortunately it wouldn’t even touch the sides of my tiredness, especially as I was stifling a yawn, ‘Good choice.’

‘Are you tired?’

‘You could say that.’

Maybe it was the lack of sleep that had my body dragging itself through the motions of the morning. Truthfully, I was still trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost by kissing Violet, though the not kissing her didn’t help with that either. Not one bit.

In fact, the not kissing her had made things worse.

And then there’d been the meeting after class, the hand-holding, everything in the rules, including the rehearsing.

Since Violet had been awarded her role, we’d only managed one session together, where I’d played all the parts opposite her character. I still wasn’t entirely sure what the play was about – secret identities, secret crushes and secret something else, she’d said, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. If I was being honest, I hadn’t exactly given it my full attention because every time Violet spoke I was too captivated by watching her mouth move. Then I’d lose my spot on the page when it was my turn to speak and it kind of broke the momentum of her concentration.

I’d had to hold the spot on the page with my finger, like a fumbling idiot.

I’d never been fumbling in my life, but Violet Brooks seemed to bring out that side of me.

‘How’s training going?’

‘Good, tiring.’ Tiring was the soundtrack of the day. ‘But it’s worth it, because we’re going to win.’

Gordon’s head bobbed, ‘Good, glad to hear it.’

‘You coming to watch?’

‘Yes, I shall be there.’ His eyes lit up enthusiastically, ‘My parents come to watch too, and we spend a long weekend in London with my sister.’

‘That sounds fun. I didn’t know you had siblings,’ I replied, realizing I actually didn’t know a huge amount about Gordon’s life outside university, mostly because he was usually talking so much about his own achievements, they kind of all merged into one. Plus, the zoning out was an issue.

‘Hot chocolate for Gordon,’ shouted the barista and I reached between the two guys in front to grab it for him.

‘Thanks. Are you on your way to our tutorial?’

‘Sure am.’

‘Great, we can walk together, and I can pick your brain on a few ideas I’ve had,’ he said, taking a long gulp of his drink before wiping away the chocolate sprinkled milk moustache which had been left.

‘Cool. Sounds good. How’s chess club?’ I asked, weaving my way through the small group of students all waiting for coffee.

‘Oh great,’ he piped up behind me, his excited voice breaking through the chatter. ‘We won the tournament last weekend, it was a really nail-biting final. You should come down and watch next time.’

A nail-biting chess final. I’d played chess at school, but only because it got me out of a series of detentions that I had no interest in completing. My headmaster had said if I played on the team for one term, my punishment would be null and void. Therefore chess club was a no brainer.

I didn’t mind it, and we won more than we lost. Not sure I’d ever describe chess as nail-biting, however. But I probably hadn’t played the way Gordon played.

‘Sounds good. As long as I don’t have a race, count me in.’

‘Excellent. I shall,’ he replied, as we stepped back onto the street side by side. ‘Hey, Charlie, isn’t that your girlfriend?’

I frowned, ‘What?’ I didn’t have a … ‘Wait, what?’

‘Yes, I’m sure it’s her. In the bright green jacket.’

My eyes snapped up, following the direction Gordon was pointing. Sure enough there was Violet, walking along the opposite pavement, her arms laden with books. She was wearing her muppet green coat, but in lieu of the navy hat with the pink bobble, she had on an enormous pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Even from this distance I could see the soft glow of her cheek from the cold air, and her face was lit up with a smile that made me want to know what she was listening to.

She was also not paying the slightest bit of attention to where she was going, but luckily that coat was warning enough to anyone walking towards her that they moved out of the way.

‘It is her, isn’t it? Her coat’s very bright.’

I grinned, it certainly was.

Anything else Gordon said fell on deaf ears, as I was already jogging halfway across the road and narrowly missed a couple of cyclists who made their annoyance known.

I stopped in front of her. I knew she hadn’t been looking where she was going when she almost walked into me.

‘Hello.’

Her blue eyes flared wide, and her nose crinkled the way it always did when she was a little confused or annoyed, though I hadn’t quite got it down which was which. She pulled off her headphones to rest around her neck. ‘Hey. What are you doing here?’

‘I just grabbed a coffee and spotted you.’

There was something about her smile that I felt deep in my chest. A twinge … a heavy thump … I dunno. But it was there.

I tried to rub it away, but it wasn’t budging. In fact, the longer we stood here staring at each other, the more pronounced it got.

‘Hello, Violet,’ puffed a voice to the side of us, thankfully breaking whatever moment had been going on between us.

‘Oh, hey Gordon.’ She turned her smile to him, ‘Where did you come from?’

‘I was talking to Charlie but he ran off the second he spotted you,’ he tutted, and I had to drop my head to hide my amusement. ‘He does that a lot.’

Violet turned to me, one perfectly arched eyebrow raised in question. ‘Does he now?’

My shoulders jerked up in response because there wasn’t much more to say. Plus, I was trying to ignore the way my cheeks suddenly warmed.

‘Where are you going with all these books?’ I nodded to her hands, and peered at the spines. The biggest one looked like it weighed a minimum of five kilos. ‘ Wilson’s Guide to Every Literary Character Ever .’

‘Returning them to the library, need to swap them out.’

‘Oh yeah? For what? A guide to all the books ever written?’ I grinned.

Her teeth might have sunk into her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing, but it couldn’t disguise the amusement in her eyes. ‘Something like that.’

I couldn’t tell you where it came from but the second the idea popped into my head, there was no stopping me.

‘Great, we’re walking that way.’

‘No, we weren’t,’ added Gordon before I could stop him too.

‘We are now.’

‘Charlie, we have tutorial,’ he pressed.

I looked at my watch. ‘In half an hour.’ Though I knew it could say we were running late and I’d still be walking in whatever direction Violet was going.

As if to illustrate the point to myself, I reached out and took all her books from her – I was wrong, that literary guide had to be nearer ten kilos, and Violet Brooks was freakishly strong.

Her entire face screwed up, and the little line that creased her nose deepened, ‘What are you doing?’

‘Carrying your books for you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you have a lot, and they look heavy.’

‘We’re not in the nineteen-fifties, I can carry my own books.’ She reached to take them back, but I shifted around so she couldn’t, only to grin wide when she huffed a little.

I liked that little huff more than I wanted to admit.

‘I’d just let him Violet, Charlie seems to do what he wants,’ grumbled Gordon.

I refrained from pointing out that he was perfectly free to go to class, and I’d meet him there.

‘He does, doesn’t he?’ she replied, though I didn’t miss the little curve of her lip as she side-eyed me.

‘Are you reading English?’ he asked, as the three of us made our way in the direction Violet had been heading.

‘Yes.’

‘I enjoy English. In my first year I took it alongside Physics, to help me balance my coursework. I very much enjoyed Shakespeare, although I wasn’t a fan of Professor Simpson. A bit subpar, in my opinion.’

Violet’s eyes widened, ‘You took English for one year as an extra credit?’

‘Gordon’s a genius, more so than me,’ I winked as she turned to me, her mouth slightly open. ‘I’m just of the regular variety, therefore can only do one subject at a time.’

‘Well, I’m impressed.’

‘Have you been to the Globe?’ he continued, ‘I go every summer with my parents, we saw Twelfth Night last year.’

I peered around Violet to look at him, ‘That’s what Violet’s studying. She just got the part of Viola in the summer production. I’ve been helping her learn lines.’

‘You?’

‘Yes.’

‘Actually, I have a Shakespeare class, but the play is separate,’ Violet added.

I’d never been on the end of one of Gordon’s withering looks before, and now I had I could safely say I’d been put in my place. Even he knew Shakespeare wasn’t my forte.

I decided to stay silent after that, and the three of us walked along the pavement towards the library. Me carrying Violet’s books, while the two of them compared their favourite characters, and while I had nothing much to add to this conversation, it was almost enough that I could witness it. Violet was quite simply mesmerizing.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the way her entire face lit up as she debated with Gordon. I couldn’t even remember a time I’d seen Gordon talk so excitedly about something that didn’t involve an equation.

But Violet had this way of bringing everyone under her spell, and it seemed even Gordon wasn’t immune.

By the time we arrived – far too quickly in my opinion – my heart was pounding out a beat I didn’t recognize.

She stopped right before we reached the steps and turned around. ‘Well, here we are.’

‘Yes,’ I replied.

‘Can I have my books back now?’ she asked, her tone filled with amusement.

I placed them gently into her outstretched arms. I don’t know what came over me – maybe it was Gordon, maybe it was the lack of sleep – but this moment, I’d decided, constituted an appropriate kissing moment. I leaned in as she gripped onto her books, and softly pressed my lips against hers. She stilled against me, and I couldn’t stop myself from breathing her in, not even a little bit.

It seemed I had absolutely no self-control this morning, though I did manage to keep my tongue to myself which I was counting as a win.

She moved back with a smile, ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘See you later. Bye Gordon.’

‘Bye Violet.’ Gordon waved, and we watched her walk towards the revolving doors. ‘Can we go now?’

‘Sure,’ I replied, though my eyes stayed trained on the girl in the green coat until she’d totally disappeared from sight. Now we could go. I turned to him with a sigh, patting his shoulder. ‘Lead the way, my friend.’

He was silent for a second as we walked off, then, ‘I like Violet, she seems very nice.’

‘Me too, mate. Me too.’